Carpenter s square



(No Model.) Q

F. F. NORDEN. GARPENTERS SQUARE.

No. 590,729. Patented Sept. 28,1897.

' WITNESSES UNITED STATES PATENT Trice.

CARPENTERS SQUARE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 590,729, dated September 28, 1897.

Application filed October 5, 1896. Serial No. 607,958. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, Forum FREDRIOK Non- DEN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Willow Grove, in the county of Montgomery and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Squares Used by Carpenters and Others; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to an instrument known as a square which is used by carpenters and others by which to measure or lay out right angles; and it consists in bev eling the under side of the square, preferably along both of its arms or members from their outer edges inward, so that when the square is laid upon a piece of material to be operated upon, with the beveled surface of one of the arms resting upon the upper surface thereof, while the other arm is allowed to hang over the edge of the material in the ordinary manner, the marking or ruling edge of the arm which rests upon the upper surface of the material will lie perfectly flat upon the same and will not be raised out of contact therewith, as would be the case if the square was the same thickness throughout its body portion. v

The object of my invention is to bring the ruling or marking edge of the square in close contact with the upper surface of the material being operatedupon, so as to avoid double or uncertain ruling or marking,as is the case with the ordinary square now in use.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of my improved square. Fig. 2 is a sectional view through one of the limbs or members of the square, the other member being shown in elevation; and Fig. 3 is a perspective view of myimproved square applied to and upon the article to be squared.

A in the drawings represents my improved square, which is constructed of metal, wood, hard rubber, celluloid, or any other suitable material either in one or more pieces. If the square is made in two pieces, the parts Will be joined together in any suitable manner. The square comprises two members or limbs B and O, which maybe of the same length or of different lengths as the circumstances may require and arranged at right angles to each other as in ordinary squares. In squares of ordinary construction the limbs or members being worked upon in order to secure a holding edge; It is obvious that in allowing the limb or member 0 to drop down or hang over the front edge of the material the ruling or marking edge Z) of the member or limb B will be raised out of contact with the upper surface of the materialbeing operated upon a distance equal to the extent to which the limb or member 0 is allowed to hang over the front edge of the material. If the limb or member 0 is allowed to hang over to a considerable extent, the distance between the upper surface of the material being operated upon and the ruling or marking edge I) of the limb or member B will be great, and a person drawing a pencil along this edge might make one mark, and drawing it again along this edge with the pencil held differently in the hand he would be apt to draw a line parallel with the first line drawn, but not coincident therewith, which would cause considerable confusion and loss of time.

The object of my invention, as heretofore stated, is to avoid the difficulties above referred to, and to accomplish this the invention consists in the bevel-surfaces of the square along one or both of its limbs or members, preferably both, as at a, the bevel extending from the outer to the inner edges of the square. It is obvious that with this construction the limb B can be laid flat upon the upper surface of the material being squared and that the limb C will drop down in front of the front edge of the material an extent equal to the depth of the bevel, and thus bear against said front edge and hold the square in position, while the marking edge I) will be in direct contact with the upper surface of the material being squared. A pencil, no matter how often drawn along this edge or how held in the hand, will make a single line if the point of the pencil is held down to work.

The importance of this invention and the advantages arising therefrom are very great, as the beneficial results above referred to are secured without necessarily increasing the expense of the instrument or rendering it more complicated than the ordinary square.

While I have shown and described the most practicable way of constructing a square in accordance with my invention-namely, beveling both surfaces of both members of the square, the bevels extending from the outer to the inner edges thereof, as this construction will secure a direct contact of the marking edge of the square, no matter in what position the square is placed upon the material being squared-yet I do not wish to limit my invention to this precise construction, as I reserve to myself the rightto bevel only one of the members on both of its surfaces from its outer to its inner edges or to bevel both of the members on only one of their surfaces from their-outer to their inner edges.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

A carpenters square consisting of two limbs forming a right angle, one or both of said limbs being constructed upon a uniform taper transverse of the width of the same, that is, the

FOLKE FREDRICK NORDEN.

\Vitnesses:

CARL A. AHLBERG, JOHN G. FORD. 

